“I tried to imagine how I would feel if someone put a knife to my throat and a gun to my back, and I wonder how many nightmares would follow,” he said.

Hellerstein also contrasted the Puerto Rican nationalists who organized the takeover with the Russian Jewish “refuseniks” who tried to escape the Soviet Union in a failed 1970 hijacking, calling those “political motives we approve of.”

The 30-year-old teacher from Puerto Rico later told her dad “I love you so much” when the judge gave her and her mom a few moments to speak to him before he was led off, sniffling back tears.

Defense lawyer James Neuman — who said Pena Soltren took part in the hijacking after getting word that his father was critically ill in Cuba — vowed to appeal what he called the “extraordinarily harsh” sentence.

Neuman noted that two other hijackers both had criminal records and were paroled after serving just four and seven years behind bars.